Cape Coral mayor storms out of meeting about charter schools

Cape Coral Mayor Marni Sawicki's four years as mayor have been filled with controversy in City Hall and out of it. When she leaves office Nov. 20 she will focus on her business and helping abuse victims.
City of Cape Coral

Sawicki's departure comes after a contentious discussion on the charter school system over a longstanding dispute between the mayor and the system's leadership

In what was billed as a discussion on best practices for the Cape Coral Charter School System, Mayor Marni Sawicki became so agitated she left in the middle of a Cape Coral City Council meeting Monday night.

The discussion eventually veered from best practices for the charter school to talk of whether or not the Cape Coral City Council should take over governing the charter school system and move the governing board to an advisory role.

Sawicki, at several points, said she had no confidence in several members of the governing board, in part, because of their response, or lack of response, to the dispute between her and former Superintendent Nelson Stephenson. Sawicki engaged in a back-and-forth with Governing Board Vice Chairman Robert Zivkovic. Sawicki became noticeably upset when a point of order was called by Councilwoman Rana Erbrick, and rose from the dais.

“You’re annoying and you’re out of order,” Sawicki said to a member of the crowd who’d shouted for the Council members to shut up. She then referred to the discussion on her previous rift with Stephenson. “No honestly, this needs to be discussed, I don’t know when we’re ever going to have this conversation, and all of you continue to do what you do, so great, on Facebook.”

“You know unfortunately she came across very angry, and upset. I’m not sure why. But she directed all that anger and hate toward me and called me a dumb-ass,” Councilman Richard Leon said. “You know, at the end of the day, she works for the people. … There are problems with the charter school. We need to address those problems. If she’s willing to get up and storm off like a child then, I’m sorry she needs to resign.”

Sawicki did not respond to requests for comment about what was said to Leon or other Council members.

Monday’s exchange continues a long line of controversy for the city’s relationship to its burgeoning charter school system. During the discussion about best practices for its personnel, finance, Information Technology and other departments, the proposal was made by City Manager John Szerlag for the system to function as a city department.

“They would be different from a department in that if the superintendent were to say we need to hire 15 more teachers, we would simply ask where the funds would come from, instead of having the ability to say, no, you only need 12 teachers,” Szerlag said.

But several members of council said any move to have the system more fully utilize city services, then council should take over governance.

“For them to be considered a department, the only way I’d be OK with that Is if the City Council acted as the board that made the decisions,” Councilwoman Marilyn Stout said. “That to me is primary.”

Councilman John Carioscia and Sawicki both endorsed that position, saying the system's finances were a concern. Two areas were the focus: an overall budget deficit of $2.4 million and the city, by not charging the full value of its services, was providing a subsidy of about $222,000. That subsidy rankled Carioscia because he said taxpayers were sold the idea of a charter school system with a promise not to have city funds paying for it.

But several members of council and members of the charter governing board pushed back.

“We’ve had one budget meeting, we haven’t had the opportunity to budget yet,” governing board member Michael Campbell said.

Zivkovic said the system had a balanced budget for years and would be able to work, either through expansion to bring in more students and thus revenue, or savings, and have the budget balanced. Further, Councilwoman Jessica Cosden, the liaison to the governing board, said the system may not need the subsidy.

Zivkovic pointed out that the acrimony between the governing board and the City Council had damaged the reputation of the system despite its high academic achievements, and would lead to uncertain and fearful parents withdrawing their students.

Then the discussion returned to Sawicki’s dispute with the board and Stephenson. Sawicki said an audit of internal funds was going smoothly and that suddenly she was faced with a barrage of unwarranted questions from the media. A barrage, she said, was unfounded and orchestrated by Stephenson.

“That’s where this rift comes through. I would love to say I have confidence in some of you,” Sawicki said. “I’m supposed to have confidence that you can run this system but you didn’t ask your superintendent what changed?”

Zivkovic responded that Sawicki’s filing of a public records request for Stephenson’s hiring materials had led to a change, and then a flurry of chatter – both off and on the dais – ultimately led to Sawicki’s departure.

Stephenson agreed to a mutual early termination with the school district in early April.

After Sawicki's departure, it was agreed to send the best practices study to the governing board for review and possible implementation.